Slow holiday season day at work so lots of time on my hands to think ahead to the playoffs. Sorry, I just can't see any way Arizona beats the Niners so I am assuming we end up in the 5 seed. Also going to assume that Green Bay wins and everyone holds serve in the AFC so first round matchups are:

The way I understand it, NBC gets first dibs of the 4 games for their Saturday prime time spot. Then they get the left over game for the early Sat spot spot. When I look at those matchups, I think if the Cowboys win, NBC will pick our game for sure. Cowobys and the new found star power of Russell Wilson in prime time is a given. Even if Washington wins they may want the RG3 / Wilson matchup (I know I would). The only way I see NBC choosing the other NFC game over us is if it's the Giants who get the 6 seed so they get the NY market and the NY / San Fran matchup.

Would NBC actually take one of those AFC matchups over the Hawks game? Would the Pats or Andrew Luck be a bigger draw?

I think the most likely scenario for us is the Saturday prime time spot. 2nd most likely spot is the late game on Sunday (a game in Baltimore or NE would be the early one). I really can't see a scenario where we are in that early slot on Saturday. If NBC takes an AFC game, I think Fox would much rather grab our game than the Niners game.

Seahawk Sailor wrote:We'll get the early Saturday game. Isn't it the way it always turns out for us in the playoffs?

We had the Saturday primetime game against Dallas in 2006. Otherwise we've had the earlier Saturday game in the first round against Washington in 2007 and New Orleans in 2010, but that's an afternoon start in both cases. Anything but the Sunday morning game please.

Not sure how we can know if it's gonna' be saturday or sunday. I sure would like to know. Looks like we won't know until Sunday night after that game. Hawks at Washington would almost certainly be Saturday night, Wilson/RG3 etc.

I hope it's not an early game. My biggest fear would be an early start with Mike Carry officiating. If that happens I will be convinced the NFL wants us out of the playoffs. If that does happen and unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised, I hope like hell the local media brings to light Mike Carries statistical comparisons vs our opponents since 2005. 2005 being when we embarrassed his friend and previous coworker Bagdad Bob/Mike Piera.

I don't want to have to win another game the way we won in Chicago. No NFL team should have the odds stacked that highly against them.

The last several years, NBC has shown both Saturday matchups. It will be the same this year. They alternate every year on who gets the 4 PM start and the 8 PM start. Last year, the AFC game was the earlier game and the NFC game was in primetime. The year prior it was the opposite.

If we are the #5 seed, I see us playing on NBC the early game.

Both CBS and FOX do the same on the Sunday slots. They both will show their respective conference games on Sunday January 6th this year. CBS will have the 1 PM AFC game while FOX will air the 4 PM NFC matchup. Last year, FOX has the 1 PM NFC contest while CBS had the 4 PM AFC game. They’ve alternated games on this date since NBC had the contract to air both games on Saturday.

So...even if we ARE on Sunday...I don't see us getting the early game...

I wrote a bunch of spew in another thread "Washington or Dallas" and I'll just quote it here (removed one line at the start). Long story short I think it's likely we get the afternoon Sunday game on FOX. -- Bocci

The league has absolutely had a team that had a game Sunday night play on Saturday in the playoffs, so don't make any assumptions there. (In fact, it happened at 4:30 PM ET, January 8, 2011, when we played the Saints at home, on a Saturday, after playing the Rams in a flex game Sunday night to determine who won the West.)

Also, it's very typical for there to be a late afternoon and a night game Saturday, and a morning and an afternoon game Sunday i.e. there's a reasonable chance that we don't have to play at 10 AM.

Take a look at this story from 2012 (i.e. last year) all times Eastern:

Basically there isn't a terrible amount of consistency but three of these four games occurred at times that are NOT 10 AM Pacific.

Some people are talking about "early" and "late" games Saturday and Sunday as if each of the early games are at 10 AM Pacific. They aren't, or more accurately, only one of them is.

Now, all that said, it is pretty typical for the NFC to have one early game and one late game, and it's also true that they won't start a game at 10 AM local time. If SF has the 3 seed in the NFC, they could play Saturday in either time slot, or Sunday late, but not Sunday morning. If the powers that be put SF in the Saturday night slot, we'd probably end up playing Sunday morning.

Another data point. My understanding is that CBS and FOX each pick one game they want (AFC and NFC respectively), and that NBC gets the other two. CBS and FOX televise on Sunday, and NBC televises on Saturday. That's the way it worked last year. Ah, here we go:

says we have NBC, NBC on Saturday, and the networks swap for Sunday i.e. last year was FOX then CBS, this year is CBS then FOX.

I could go all over the place depending on if SF or GB make it as the 3 seed, and who is in as the four seed. If it's Washington, I would be pretty sure that FOX wants that game, and so that's the "late" Sunday game (actually Sunday afternoon). If it's Dallas, well, hell, I'd suspect FOX would want that game too. Hmmm. Seems to me that an earlier poster is probably right... if we end up the five seed, we'll probably play on FOX on Sunday afternoon.

While the Saturday prime time game would be nice, I would personally rather have the 4pm Sunday game to stay in the same routine. Routines are a key point for sustained success. Football teams love routines.